PowerShell - Decode System.Security.SecureString to readable password

Question

I want to decode the password from a System.Security.SecureString to a readable password.

$password = convertto-securestring "TestPassword" -asplaintext -force $credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("TestUsername", $password, "TestDomain") 

This code part works fine, I can use the $credentials object. But later in my code I need the password in a readable format. Because a methode needs the password in readable string. So I must decode the password back.

How it is possible to decode the password from the $credentials object?

Update

Not working:

$password = convertto-securestring "TestPassword" -asplaintext -force $credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("TestUsername", $password, "TestDomain")  $Ptr = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToCoTaskMemUnicode($credentials.password) $result = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringUni($Ptr) [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ZeroFreeCoTaskMemUnicode($Ptr) $result  

Answer 1

Here you go:

$password = ConvertTo-SecureString 'P@ssw0rd' -AsPlainText -Force  $Ptr = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToCoTaskMemUnicode($password) $result = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringUni($Ptr) [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ZeroFreeCoTaskMemUnicode($Ptr) $result  

P@ssw0rd

Answer 2

For a "System.Net.NetworkCredential" object, all you need to do is read the String password.

$password = convertto-securestring "TestPassword" -asplaintext -force $credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("TestUsername", $password, "TestDomain") $credentials.Password TestPassword  $credentials | gm  TypeName: System.Net.NetworkCredential  Name           MemberType Definition ----           ---------- ---------- Equals         Method     bool Equals(System.Object obj) GetCredential  Method     System.Net.NetworkCredential GetCredential(uri uri, str GetHashCode    Method     int GetHashCode() GetType        Method     type GetType() ToString       Method     string ToString() Domain         Property   string Domain {get;set;} Password       Property   string Password {get;set;} SecurePassword Property   securestring SecurePassword {get;set;} UserName       Property   string UserName {get;set;} 

If you end up with a PSCredential object, from an interactive command like Get-Credential use

$credentials=Get-Credential $credentials.GetNetworkCredential().UserName TestUsername $credentials.GetNetworkCredential().Domain TestDomain $credentials.GetNetworkCredential().Password TestPassword 

See http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/03/26/decrypt-powershell-secure-string-password.aspx for details.

Note: I used PS 4 for this example.